Throw the book at them

The University of Michigan is making what I consider to be a rather absurd claim; that somehow the rest of the coaching staff didn't know about Connor Stallions' sign stealing scheme.  Let's go through the evidence:

• Michigan's win percentage went up 25% during the scheme, and then down 30% when it was exposed.
• The major losses during the scheme were relatively un-scoutable bowl games.
• In contract talks, former stinky weasels coach Jim Harbaugh insisted on protection from NCAA investigations.
• Harbaugh has been banned from the NCAA for four years for refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
• Current Michigan coach Sherrone Moore has already been sanctioned for his role.
• Several coaches' computers and phones showed evidence of the scheme.  Three have been fired, and the defensive coordinator moved to the NFL.
• Are we to seriously believe that Harbaugh, Moore, Jesse Minter, and other Michigan coaches missed the fact that they were amazingly more likely to be in the right defense in 2021-3 than they were in 2019 and before?  (2020 was a forgiveable lost season for them)
• Are we to believe that nobody in the coaching staff never slipped up as they applied their knowledge of offensive signs when calling the plays defensively during the game?

Now the NCAA has telegraphed their unwillingness to seriously punish the stinky weasels already by saying they won a national championship "fair and square", but the bulk of the evidence suggests that Michigan needs to give up their wins from 2021-3, as well as about six scholarships per year for the next four years.

Interesting confession

After pardoning President Nixon for crimes related to Watergate to avoid an endless set of investigations and prosecutions, President Ford carried a card in his pocket noting a Supreme Court decision that said that the man who accepts a pardon implicitly admits guilt.

In that light, it's very interesting that basically Biden's whole extended family is getting pardons, and it suggests that we might do well to continue investigating to see exactly how bad the breaches of national security have been. And yes, Dr. Fauci, I'm looking at you, too.  I don't know if it's technically a breach of criminal law to do gain of function research with the Chinese, but certainly it's a breach of moral law and basic common sense.   

Grounds for disbarment

Judge Juan Merchan has decided to "punish" President Trump with an "unconditional discharge" for his, um, "crimes".  What this means is no fines and no jail time, and what that means is that at the root of things, Merchan does not believe that Trump really did anything that was that harmful to the country.

Which is exactly what any sane person would have thought when the charges were introduced; more or less, expired misdemeanor charges become a...felony...through unspecified other felonies not mentioned in the jury verdict, most likely federal election charges not under the jurisdiction of state courts to begin with...when untold numbers of New York businessmen hide payments to their mistresses and other embarrassing expenses in precisely the same way, and the city/state of course did not, of course, dig up unspecified felonies to prosecute these men, let alone prosecute them for this during the period specified by the statute of limitations.

It is extremely unlikely that this remedy will be applied in New York, where their "Supreme Court" has already signed off on this travesty, but in a sane legal world, this would be grounds for disbarment for everyone involved, including Merchan.  The ugly fact of the matter is that the costs of defense for this proceeding likely go to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and what this means is that to prosecute a legally tenuous case involving misdemeanors, the prosecution has committed multiple felonies (it is a felony to steal more than $1000 from a person, no?) against President Trump.

I am no fan of adultery or hush money, and have my misgivings about President Trump, but if we want justice in this country, I can think of at least 17 lawyers who need to be disbarred, if not imprisoned: Juan Merchan, Alvin Bragg, and Bragg's entire team, especially Michael Colangelo.  In general, those who "make the process the punishment" need to be reminded, harshly, that they are indeed imposing penalties on men without a conviction.  It is not a game.

Moreover, Colangelo, and the people who almost certainly paid him off to join Bragg's team (which was a huge demotion for him), also need to be prosecuted for public corruption.  This would likely include Joseph Robinette Biden, Alvin Bragg, and Merrick Garland, among others.  Somebody had to promise Colangelo a nice payoff for going from a prime DOJ spot to a relatively "podunk" post in Gotham City.

An interesting experiment not intended

I saw on "Powerline" today how the rate of traffic tickets issued in San Francisco has plummeted in the past decade.  For reference, here is the graph, and the crazy thing is that while the rate of issuing tickets has dropped by a factor of 30 or so, the vehicular death rate is about the same in the same time period.  

Now perhaps San Francisco imposes a degree of traffic sanity found  in not too many other places with large hills and lots of stoplights, but I do have to wonder if this is an indication that if it's public safety we're looking for, we need to take Officer Friendly off traffic patrol and have him start investigating serious crimes like rape--or replace him with someone who can.